OpenEdge Development with AI: Enhanced Productivity with the Progress OpenEdge AI Assistant

The role of the software developer is evolving faster than ever. As organizations modernize, adapt and innovate, the intersection of advanced AI solutions and enterprise-grade applications like the Progress OpenEdge development platform creates unique challenges and unprecedented opportunities for the people writing the code.

Organizations using the Progress OpenEdge platform face a unique challenge—while AI-powered coding assistants like GitHub Copilot, ChatGPT and Claude can be game-changing for mainstream languages like Python or JavaScript, they don’t truly understand OpenEdge Advanced Business Language (ABL). That’s because there’s far less publicly available ABL code to train large models. The result? Out-of-the-box AI tools often generate inaccurate ABL code, leaving developers fixing errors, managers struggling to enforce standards and IT leaders worrying about modernization risks and costs.

This gap is why we built the Progress OpenEdge AI Assistant (formerly Model Context Protocol (MCP) Connector for ABL)—a purpose-built bridge between your AI assistant and your unique OpenEdge environment. It’s the human-centric AI solution designed specifically to accelerate ABL modernization, reduce development risk and boost productivity across your teams.

Why Generic AI Tools Fall Short for ABL

Generic coding copilots are trained on massive datasets from popular, open-source languages. But ABL is different; it powers mission-critical business systems but has a much smaller open footprint. This mismatch leaves developers dealing with:

• Frequent errors in AI-generated ABL

• Limited support for modernization and upgrades

• Inconsistent outputs that don’t align with organizational coding
  standards

• Increased costs for fixes, maintenance and testing

For companies with core applications built on the OpenEdge platform, this makes AI adoption more risky than rewarding.

With embedded Generative AI (GenAI) and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) directly in your workflow, this assistant helps with sustainable modernization, faster upgrades and true developer agility using the OpenEdge ABL code you know best.

A Tailored Solution: OpenEdge AI Assistant

The Progress OpenEdge AI Assistant is designed to solve these exact challenges. By combining GenAI with RAG, the Connector feeds your assistant with your rules, standards, documentation and ABL context. That means the code suggestions inside your Integrated Development Environment (IDE) or command line interface (CLI) aren’t just generic guesses—they’re aligned with your environment and modernization goals.

Developers can work interactively with AI right where they code, whether in Visual Studio Code, Windsurf, Cursor or a CLI tool like Claude Code. Instead of jumping between tools or manually auditing outputs, the Connector delivers context-aware support right in the workflow.

The result? Developers move faster, the volume of errors goes down and modernization projects like upgrading to OpenEdge 12 become far more achievable.

Key Capabilities at a Glance

• Automate routine work: Generate boilerplate code, scaffolding, documentation and unit tests from natural-language prompts.

• Improve quality: Access context through RAG, enforce coding standards and instantly validate compliance.

• Accelerate modernization: Refactor legacy ABL, spot deprecated constructs and streamline migrations.

• Enhance security & governance: Build organization-specific guardrails into every generated output.

• Preserve institutional knowledge: Capture expertise in reusable workflows and make onboarding easier.

• Future readiness: Adapt seamlessly as both AI models and the OpenEdge platform itself evolves.

Who Benefits Most?

• Developers cut down on manual coding, generate standards-compliant
  ABL and reduce errors so they can stay productive and confident.

• Development managers and architects gain stronger enforcement of
  standards, smoother onboarding and accelerated modernization without
  the cost of manual rewrites.

• IT and business leaders achieve lower risk, reduced costs, faster
  modernization timelines and a future-proof foundation.

How It Works

The Progress OpenEdge AI Assistant connects your IDE to an MCP server—an AI integration layer that draws on domain-specific data, organizational rules and your ABL codebase. From there, developers interact directly with their AI assistant to:

• Query, generate, document and refactor code via natural-language
  prompts

• Automate routine updates and bug fixes

• Prepare for OpenEdge 12 adoption by detecting deprecated constructs

• Support compliance and strengthen security standards inline

• Accelerate project timelines with AI-powered automation and
  governance

Beyond the Connector: AI Coding Assistant Service

Alongside the product, we also offer the OpenEdge AI Coding Assistant Service, which helps customers implement, customize and scale their AI-enabled OpenEdge process. Our team will work with you to:

• Index and align your existing codebase and standards

• Enforce compliance through real-time checks and governance reporting

• Support modernization initiatives, including refactoring for OpenEdge
  12 and Progress Application Studio (PAS) for OpenEdge

• Deliver flexibility with MCP-first, deep IDE integration or curated
  rule file distribution

This service ensures your organization captures immediate value while scaling AI adoption on your terms.

Learn more about the AI Coding Assistant for ABL Accelerator Service.

Move Faster, Reduce Risk, Modernize with Confidence

With the Progress OpenEdge AI Assistant, your team gains a tailored AI coding partner that understands your environment, enforces your standards and accelerates your modernization roadmap.

It’s time to ship ABL code faster, cleaner and more confidently—with AI built for your needs, not somebody else’s.

Learn more about the Progress OpenEdge AI Assistant and get started today!